Not debatable? I dunno, Doc, I like Bach a lot, but when I think of the greatest music I've ever heard Beethoven comes to mind.
It is not really debatable. Pretty much every musician puts Bach as the alpha and Omega point.
His output we have is enormous, and we believe 40% has been lost including one of his passions.
The invention of this man was enormous. The number of tunes he wrote enormous, and a high percentage of the time he has more then one tune running at once, two, three, four, five six, seven and even 8! All meshing together constructing glorious harmonies.
Unfortunately most only know his secular music. His greatest music is his liturgical music, his phenomenal output of Cantatas, the two great passions that survive, oratorios foe Christmas, Easter and Ascension, and of course the Great B Minor Mass.
Last Christmas my wife gave me the 56 CD collection of Sir John Elliot Gardener's year 2000 Bach pilgrimage with his Montiverdi Choir, orchestra and soloists. Sir John started this pilgrimage on Christmas Day 1999, and performed the cantatas written for the respective Sundays and Feasts throughout the liturgical year. He performed them in cathedrals and churches across Europe, ending his pilgrimage in New York. Other collections are arranged by BWV number which makes little sense. Sir John's performance are as usual full of bounce and drive. His period instrument group is second to none. It is really wonderful to have these masterpieces aligned to the liturgical year.
I have been following this pilgrimage this year. Bach wrote as a rule about three or four cantatas for each Sunday and Feast over his lifetime. These are just the ones that survive. The thing that strikes is the shear inventiveness and beauty. He had no set formulas. Each has its unique arrangements of instrumentation, order of chorals, choruses, arias, and recitatives. The incredible things is how everything interweaves. Often there will be multiple themes in the orchestra and once, with part of the choir singing a choral and part of the choir singing a chorus. Yet it all blends perfectly.
As an organist, and especially as a composer of music for the pipe organ, he is, and has remained, in a class of his own.
He was also a great improviser, and use to "jam" and give concerts at Zimmermann's coffee house in Liepzig. How I wish recordings were available then.
Not only that, but Bach has been the greatest of teachers down the centuries since. He left valuable instructions and teaching aids on composition, such as the Well Tempered Clavier and the Art of Fugue among others.
The study of Bach's compositions has taught numerous composers, especially Mozart who made intensive study of Bach's compositions. Medelssohn in particular made intensive study of Bach's music and performed it widely. All of the great composers since Bach owe him an enormous debt. There is no doubt that Bach has had more influence on the development of Western music than anybody else. He has had a huge influence on American music in particular, from the early Fuguing music of early New England, to Blue Grass and Jazz.
His achievements and and influence on the course of music is without parallel. But for Bach our musical scene today would be very different.
Towards the end of his life, "Old Bach" was summoned by Frederick the Great to Sansoucci. Frederick the Great was a flute player and a composer of significance. He also did not wash and stank to high Heaven. Anyhow he wrote a tune to trip up Bach. He came up with this tune because he thought it impossible to arrange in parts. It was truly almost impossible. Bach improvised on the tune, and Frederick wanted in two parts and then four, to which Bach obliged and composed on the spot. Then Frederick wanted in eight parts. Bach said the tune was very difficult to arrange in parts, but that he would go home and think about it.
Bach went home and in a short time had Frederick's tune arranged in eight parts. He sent the manuscript to Frederick the Great. This composition among the greatest of our civilization has become known as the "Musical Offering."
So even in ripe old age Bach continued to "write the book on composition".
Time spent with Bach is never wasted my friend. It is pure joy.
